“This post is about the desktop operating systems that fly under the radar of most people. We are definitely not talking about Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, or even BSD or Solaris. There are much less mainstream options out there for the OS-curious.” Though the article doesn’t go into much detail about the OSes, it is a good round up of some of the interesting candidates.
some good Operating systems in that list.
I sincerely hope that AMiga Os can get off the ground properly and that Haiku gets properly released before I’m due to retire.
But of that list, the only OS that I think stands a chance is SKYos. some of the stuff they’re doing is truly outstanding – it looks fast, looks very fast and has some lovely features. Trouble seems to be with Skyos though, they’re not actively doing anything with it other than developing new and whizzy features.
I think ultimately, if any of that list ever succeeds commercially it will be because they marketed themselves more effectively.
I still have yet to try AROS (the only Amiga option I’d consider at this point, since I don’t plan to buy any special hardware to use it)… but it definitely seems interesting.
Haiku is at least progressing in the right direction for a release
I signed up for the SkyOS beta some years ago now, with high hopes at the time. Unfortunately at the time, it ran very poorly on some of my hardware, and I have yet to try a more recently release (been tied up with Haiku in all my spare time). If the hardware support and underlying speed has improved greatly since then, I would be happy to play with it some more
(Mental note: take a look at recent SkyOS builds in the near future)
I think the major turn-off for me is that it’s not currently FOSS… I’ve reached a point in my life where this matters a lot. I realize not everyone cares about this, but for me personally it’s become a major deciding factor.
I’ve always loved AmigaOS. My first computer was a Commodore Amiga.
I’d add eComStation (forked from OS/2 Warp 4.5x) to the list.
Other oldies that would be cool to play with: Domain/OS, IRIX, OpenGenera, and OpenVMS. Though, the hardware for these is old and scarce, and they’re not exactly open, free, or necessarily still in use (EOL/EOP).
Edited 2008-09-27 01:24 UTC
openGENERA will run on ALPHA cpus, iirc. And so does OpenVMS. Alphas aren’t very scarce, really.
You can play with OpenVMS on the Deathrow cluster @ http://deathrow.vistech.net/
I like VMS a lot. Been wanting to get an old Vax to play with it on
Always good to see articles about the lesser-known operating systems. Haiku and ReactOS have both made
lots of progress in the last year or so.
I’d add another OS to the list – MonaOS. It is MIT-licensed and well worth checking out. Only about a 5 Mb download.
http://www.monaos.org/
Edited 2008-09-27 02:20 UTC
I would add Plan9
I think if Reactos really works and is stable down the road, many people could use it as a replacement for Windows to run their Windows apps easily and efficiently. Still a few years to wait though…
Gives me the perfect excuse to build a test machine.
so I not the only one thinking about it.
A virtual machine is easier
Most of these will run in say, VMWare.
Don’t care about the close source ones. Open source is the only way
I agree
Haiku I think is by far the most interesting project on the list! I grew up as an Amiga user, but once I laid hands on BeOS I was sold! Things are looking really good for it and I hope they continue to improve!
Of course I hope the best for anything Amiga related, and really hope that AROS gets more of the attention it deserves since Amiga OS 4.1 and MorphOS seem to be only available to those with certain hardware at the moment which is really killing things for those of us who are poor, but want to dive in.
Last but not least I think that if ReactOS fully pulls off it’s goal that it will be in HEAVY use in the years to come…
…though they do share code with other people, and there is the WINE project, so who knows? Maybe most free OS’s in the near future will feature classic windows compatibility layers?
Some of the other OS’s on there looked interesting. Some I’d seen before, others not. Though I can say it was nice to see Syllable on that list, though I’ve never tried it, I’ve remember watching it with interest back in the day. I wonder how it’s coming along?
If you’d like to give it a try, we provide a pre-built VMWare disc image that can be used with almost any virtual machine (provided it can read or convert a VMDK file). It’s a nice easy way to try Syllable if you don’t have a spare partition to install it on.
We hope to have the LiveCD back again soon, too.
I have to agree with you. I find Haiku as the most promising alternative. BUT! I still dont understand why they want their OS to look like it’s 1998. They are so afraid to add some eye candy. Some Eye Candy can even gain your productivity (like semi-transparent windows). I’ll hold my breath that someone outside the project continue Tracker/deskbar and extend the current app_server.
Perhaps because adding eye candy does a couple of things:
1) distracts from actually finishing the OS (eye candy doesn’t actually make an OS)
2) slows down video/graphics performance (important for an OS that doesn’t have any hardware accelerated 3D yet)
3) potentially invites the wrong crowd of users – admit it, eye candy panders to non-technical people, it’s the absolute wrong time for this. Also, Haiku is about simplicity, minimalists like small, yet tasteful, interfaces. I personally appreciate the simplicity of Haiku, I hate eye candy.
I’m that guy who must revert windows back to “classic mode” before I can use it.. and I like it that way
Still they got an orgnization, and several artist made a few mockups which are being ignored.
Iam not talking about watereffects on windows, Iam talking basic things that can help you navigate, like shadows, highlightning instead of flat userinterface like it is today.
Simplicity can be even more clear with “eye candy” – Iam not talking about something like compiz, I just think they need to redesign/continue the design of the UI. The menu/popup is just plain ugly if you ask me.
I like it that way too.
MorphOS is getting support for the Mac Mini now – that’s still exotic in regard to a vanilla pc, but a big advance to the current limited hardware availability (Efika and 2nd hand Pegasos). Hopefully a bunch of iBooks will be supported as well.
Not a breakthrough though, but an improvement.
I’ve tried ReactOS, Syllable, Sky, and a few others. I haven’t been able to get them to run on the bare hardware. I just have very generic devices, nothing exotic they shouldn’t handle. One of the awesome things about Beos 5 was it just worked on my computer. It even supported my tv card, and just ran my system better than windows or linux.
Did you report the problems to the developers? We need to know if you run into problems otherwise we’ll never be able to fix the bugs you are encountering.
I added a comment to the wrong story. Go figure. So I will rewrite it.
Anyway — Even OpenDOS is an interesting alternative OS, and if you create a bootable CD running OpenDOS with a good menu system, you can use it as an emergency disk and even for useful stuff if you have tools available to you like NeoPaint.
Edited 2008-09-30 15:22 UTC
Why won’t it let me edit the title of my previous comment?
You can try some of the OS out in VB. It allows installation of many OSes on many different host platforms. For instance, you can install and try: Plan9, BeOS, OpenStep, Syllable, ReactOS, Haiku, etc
Inofficial OS list that requires some hands on before working:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=3730
Official “supported” OS list:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes